


Meet Me in the Woods Tonight

by bookwormally



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Depictions of Werewolf Shifting and Effects, M/M, Werewolves, Wizards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:42:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28061883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookwormally/pseuds/bookwormally
Summary: Solar Eclipse Wizardry: For All Your Magical & Supernatural Needs!Isa has been a werewolf for a decade, but he's started having full moon issues out of the blue. What else is he to do but seek out the local wizard for some investigative help? Luckily(?) for him the local wizard is incredibly good at what he does, and very attractive besides.Axel has been looking for a way to actually talk to the cute animal shelter worker since he met him weeks ago. When Isa walks in, he gets just that chance - plus an opportunity to show-off. What more could a gay wizard ask for?
Relationships: Axel/Saïx (Kingdom Hearts), Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 48
Collections: MoonFire Big Bang 2020





	1. In which a werewolf sets up the plot

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first big bang project! I wanna thank the mods and my team so, so much for setting up the project and inspiring and encouraging me every step of the way with this fic. I had a wonderful time and honestly, would love to do it again!
> 
> But you're here for gay magic and werewolves, so let's get into it!

There are many ways to find a wizard. It used to involve a lot of rumors, boots you wouldn’t mind losing in a swamp, and a handful of coins. Now, it’s as easy as typing ‘wizard,’ ‘witch,’ or ‘sorcerer’ into your phone and letting the magical directory do the work. Of course, some folks are old fashioned and you should probably have boots good for muddy days anyway. But at least everyone tends to take card when you have to pay for the consultation, potion, or bottled spell.

If you live within thirty minutes’ drive of Twilight Town, you don’t even need the internet. Anybody you ask about solving magical problems will point you to the local wizard and have at least one story about their last visit to his shop. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if they’re recommending him or warning you off. Regardless, it’s a direction.

Solar Eclipse Wizardry is instantly recognizable from the outside. It might be a house that converted its first floor to a shop, but it is still very clearly a wizard’s shop. Pinwheels spin a rainbow of colors between the bushes, windchimes catch every breeze with a chime or a rhythmic clack, and at least two fountains bubble with water, tempting the local birds to land and add their colors and songs to the display.

Even the path to the door is bright: painted cobblestones lead the way to the porch where a metal sign hangs above the door. Besides the name, the image of a sun half-covered by the moon is engraved into the metal. Another smaller sign is resting inside the door, declaring the shop open.

It’s sad that it’s intimidating in its brightness.

Isa forces himself to inhale. He would be fine if it wasn’t for all the damn noise. He rubs an ear and tells himself it has to be quieter inside. He needs to go in and have this conversation and he can’t do it somewhere else. This is the wizard’s shop, this is where the wizard does business.

...If there are more noise making things inside, maybe he’ll find a nice quiet wizard who favors silent spellwork.

“This is pointless,” he growls to himself, massaging his temples. “He’s here and he has a good reputation. Go in.” He steps through the gate and moves quickly up the path from there. Most of the windchimes are on the porch, so he opens the door a bit harder than he means to, but then he’s inside. And it is blessedly free from windchimes, fountains, and the piercing shriek of birds. Isa might actually sigh in relief as the door shuts behind him.

With a headache avoided, Isa looks around the shop. There’s a small counter set against the far wall, an old clunky cash register sitting on one end, and a clear display case on the other. To Isa’s left are several tall shelves. One is mostly full of books, ranging from old looking tomes to modern, brightly bound how-to books. From the door, Isa can see at least one title that proclaims something about ‘tarot and you!’ The other shelves are stocked with a range of bottles, crystals, and other odds and ends that Isa can only assume are part and parcel of witchcraft.

To his right is a long table set under the windows of the front of the house. An array of devices are set on it, including a crystal ball that has a very clear heat warning sign on it. Isa’s lips quirk. If the wizard is like they say, it could be a warning about the refraction of light through glass or the ball could actually be peering into Hell. He’s going to assume the former, because he’d rather not work with a wizard fond of dealing with demons. (Not that Isa hasn’t met a nice demon or two, but the ones in Hell tend to be a bit more...chaotic.)

Other than the shop goods, the room is empty. There’s no one behind the counter and there’s a chain strung across the opening to the hall. The sign on the chain says “staff only” but it doesn’t help Isa find anyone. He takes a few steps over to the counter, hopeful for a bell if nothing else. Closer, he can see that several of the items in the display glass are high-quality potion ingredients including a phoenix feather.

“I wonder if he has one,” Isa murmurs to himself. His gaze sweeps over the counter and he spots a doorbell stuck to the side of the cash register. A sign taped beside it helpfully says, “Ring!” It even has a little arrow pointing to the button. Isa glances around again, not wanting to press it just for the wizard to be behind him, and then presses the button. Somewhere close by, a phone starts ringing. Isa touches his pocket, but it’s not his. _Is that the bell?_ It would be a clever trick of programming or a neat spell to ring a phone when the button is pressed.

“Hold on!” Someone shouts from down the hall. “Just in the back with a volatile potion! If you’re dying, please try to hold it for like ten seconds!”

Isa rolls his eyes. As if people can literally hold off death. Maybe this is a mistake. Luckily for him, before he can reconsider his entire plan of action, someone comes down the hall. They’re tall enough to easily step over the chain and Isa is immediately drawn to the line of their legs. _Now is most definitely not the time for that._ He looks up instead and almost takes a step back.

The wizard, it has to be the wizard, has a shock of bright red hair that’s pulled back into a ponytail. It doesn’t contain all of his hair, pieces escaping to float around his ears in little spikes. His skin is pale and freckled, but the truly shocking thing is the glasses that the wizard is wearing. Gold-rimmed and with reflective black lenses, Isa stares at the three-eyed glasses and wonders just _what_ is under them.

“Hey, afternoon!” The wizard is smiling, but Isa can’t stop looking at the gaudy glasses. It takes him a long moment to realize the wizard is waiting for him to respond.

Isa swallows the shock and clears his throat. “Good afternoon. You’re the wizard who runs this shop, correct?”

“That’s me. You can call me Axel.” He offers his hand, the other lifting the glasses to the top of his head. He doesn’t, in fact, have three eyes, but the two he does have are the same rich green of the tree leaves at the height of summer. Isa takes his hand and it’s grounding in its firmness, especially after the whirlwind of noise and color that this trip has been so far.

“I’m Isa and I was hoping to speak with you about an issue. Do you have a schedule for consultations? I’d prefer sometime this week as there’s something of a...time limit.” Isa meets Axel’s gaze despite every rumor he’s ever heard about wizards being able to read your mind if they hold your gaze.

Axel doesn’t hold his gaze. He grins and looks away, leaning down to grab a notebook from a shelf behind the counter. “I’ve got a schedule, but unless something big is on its way, nothing’s ever too much of a time commitment. Really, if you’ve got time right now, we could talk.”

“Right now?

“If you’ve got time!” Axel’s smile is entirely lacking any forced angle - he looks entirely honest and earnest.

Isa rubs the back of his neck. “If you have the time now...it is a matter of _time_.”

“That’s what you said.” Axel shoves the notebook back and waves Isa toward the roped off hall. “Come on, we can go back to the private room. No one will overhear us there.”

In other situations that would have a much _different_ implication. Here and now, Isa’s glad for the privacy. The last thing he needs is some random person wandering into the shop and hearing about his complete failure as a wolf. “Thank you,” he says simply, letting Axel take several steps toward the hall before he follows.

Axel unhooks the rope, waving Isa ahead of him, and then clicks it behind them again. “First door on your right there. I’m just going to go double-check nothing’s boiling over and then I’ll be right there. Swear it.” This is accompanied by a fairly unnecessary wink. Isa resists the urge to pull a face, nods, and opens the door to the side room. Axel continues down the hall to what must be the kitchen.

“I can’t believe he converted his house,” Isa mutters, stepping into the side room. It looks like it might once have been someone’s den or home office; it has two bookshelves, now stacked with a variety of...things instead of books. There’s a desk with a chair on either side and a messy stack of papers waiting to be gone through, but the laptop resting on its top is covered in stickers. Isa eyes one that looks like a hedgehog that’s _red_ for some reason, and has had three-lens sunglasses drawn onto its face. “Ah.”

Isa sits in the chair in front of the desk, surprised by how comfortable it is. He sinks a bit into it and rubs the back of his neck. None of this has been like he expected, in both good and bad directions. “At least nothing is on fire,” he tells himself and then glances at the slightly open door. “...hopefully.”

He resists the urge to go over his practiced explanation in his head again. He’s been doing it for days, more for every day he put this visit off. He’s going to sound like a pup new to the moon and it’s going to be _embarrassing_ , but surely a wizard has heard both worse and weirder than a werewolf who can’t-.

“We’re all set!” Axel strides into the room, plopping down into the chair behind the desk with a grin. His glasses are back on his nose, but he shoves them up as he scoots closer to the desk. “It’s usually pretty quiet this time of day, but I won’t jinx it and say nobody will be in. So, let’s get started before some other apocalypse rolls in. How can I help you?”

Isa blinks. Axel talks quite fast and his smile and his eyes are distracting in their brightness. Isa rubs his neck again and then sits up very straight. “I’m a werewolf,” he says to get the basics out of the way. “I’ve been having an issue for the past few moons that I thought was based on other factors, but I’ve been eliminating them one by one and the issue persists. I’m hoping it’s not something where I’ll need to move, because I quite like where I live right now, but…”

He looks up at the wizard who’s smiling at him in bemusement. Isa frowns at him. “What?”

“You haven’t told me what the ‘issue’ is.” Axel taps the top of his desk. “So...issue? I’m guessing it’s not random hair loss.”

Isa touches one of the long pieces hanging beside his face. “No,” he says shortly, “it’s not about my hair.” That little change is too far in the past for him to change or worry about now. He resettles his hands in his lap, intertwining his fingers to ease the fidgets. “The issue is that despite all my preparations and adjustments, I keep finding myself out in the woods moon after moon. And not close to the edge by my home, far out into the woods.”

Now, Axel looks serious. “Maybe it’s the hunting instinct?”

“It might be...but it’s not the normal kind. I always prepare food and I’ve never returned to my senses covered in blood or viscera.” Isa shrugs. His clothes are perfectly spotless today. “I don’t think anything in the house is driving me out. I know my patterns and my greatest dislikes, so I don’t have anything in the house.”

“Not anything that you can detect.” Axel taps the top of the laptop and then opens it. “What’s your address? Let me check if I’ve noted anything weird nearby.”

Isa’s lived there for a handful of years and this issue is less than six months old, so the thought that he’s missed something in his environment is insulting. Still, he gives Axel his address. Perhaps some weird magical incident has escaped his careful research...somehow. He expects it to be quiet as Axel reviews his location and whatever notes he keeps, but the man mutters a constant stream of narration.

“Oh, you’re out by the big woods. It’s practically a nature preserve behind you. I had to go save a couple hikers out there once. They reported a mad unicorn and I was the closest with clearances to deal with it. Turned out to be a pissed off mule with a weird haircut. I think that was the last incident we had anywhere near you though… Ah, wait, should I call that witch that lives out past you? She almost always stays home, but maybe she found something weird.”

Axel leans back in his chair and his gaze finds Isa’s again. “This will take some legwork. I need to check around places, including your house. Though, really, that’d be my last resort. I’ve got several spells that I can use out in the woods to check for weird shit first.”

Right, so he does know what he’s doing. Isa nods. “Of course. I wish I had more information to offer you, but as I said-.”

“You eliminated the factors you could. Trust me, that’s more help than I get from a lot of people.” Axel smiles widely, making his eyes crinkle up. “We’ll figure it out. It just might take a bit of work.”

“I can pay for anything,” Isa says firmly. “I need this solved.”

“Please,” Axel scoffs, waving a hand. “If this turns out to be something super serious, I’m not charging you. What kind of asshole charges people who need help? Magic potions for hair color and selling people a crystal for a good night’s sleep is different. Consultations are things I don’t nickel and dime you for.”

“I will pay you something for the trouble,” Isa says, not backing down. “This is your job and I appreciate your assistance.”

Axel arches an eyebrow. “Fine, fine. We’ll work it out once I’ve worked out what the trouble is. Here’s my preliminary plan: I’ll check with my other contacts in the area and do several detection spells in the woods. If nothing turns up that’s an obvious issue, we’ll need to talk more about possibilities. I might just have to come with you on the moon night and find it that way.” He shrugs.

No werewolf is _good_ company under the full moon, but Isa manages himself just fine. “That’s fine,” he tells Axel. “I hope it’s found before then, but if it needs to happen, it needs to happen.”

“Great.” Axel closes his laptop with a click and holds a hand out. His fingers are in the same graceful proportion as his legs. Isa has the errant thought that Axel would be well suited to many instruments and then takes the hand. They shake on it and Isa is pleasantly surprised by their matched strength.

When they let go, Isa fidgets with a piece of his hair. “Anything else?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Axel laughs. “I’m the one with the shop. But, really, I need your contact info. I can’t exactly update you by snapping my fingers and appearing at your side. Plus, you know, work.”

“Right.” Isa takes the notepad Axel offers him and copies down his name, phone number, and address. Again, he has the thought that in other situations, this would be something much different. _This is work, not some ridiculous movie-style hookup. Focus!_

He better leave before he embarrasses himself. Isa pushes the chair back and stands. “Thank you, Axel. I’m sure you’ll be a help to me.”

“I do my best.” Axel winks at him and then tugs his sunglasses down again. With a flick of his fingers, he’s pulled a magician’s trick and summoned a card from nowhere. “Phone number’s on there. Give us a call if something else crops up before I get back to you. If Vanitas or Larxene give you a hard time on the phone, ignore them. They’ll give me the phone after they’re done being jackasses.”

Isa takes the card, slowly lifting an eyebrow. “Do you deliberately hire people with poor customer service skills?”

“I make my magic friend and apprentice work for me, actually. Someone has to keep them from causing chaos and it’s my cross to bear.” Axel sticks his tongue out. “If you’re lucky, I’ll be watching the phone so much that they won’t get a chance to grab it.”

That sounds very much like he’ll be waiting specifically for Isa to call. Isa scans his face, but it’s hard to read past the glasses. He tucks the card into his pocket and nods. “I’ll hope I’m lucky then and you call me first.” Isa doesn’t stop himself from smirking, turning to make his exit. He just barely catches the tips of Axel’s ears going pink.

Stepping into the hall, Isa exhales. _Were you trying to flirt? Because that was almost competent._ He can hear Axel moving things around and moves toward the door. He doesn’t need to be caught overthinking his actions. “I also need to talk to myself less,” he mutters as he unhooks the hall chain. As Xion told him, it’s why everyone at the shelter thought he was constantly pissed off as he glared at his own thoughts.

Hooking the chain again gives him an excuse to look back down the hall. Axel is just turning toward the kitchen, but waves. “Later, Isa.”

Isa lifts a hand. There’s definitely no reason to linger even if more questions, more excuses occur to him. Just what is Axel brewing in his kitchen and why was he so concerned about it catching fire? Isa sighs as he crosses the front of the shop and pulls the door open. The noise of everything outside assaults his ears.

With a grumble, Isa hurries down the path and away from the madness. Funny how he’d mostly forgotten it once he got inside. _Too distracted by pretty green eyes and long legs, you idiot._ As he approaches his bike, Isa pulls the card out again. He better save the number now - he wouldn’t want to miss a call...for an update on his case. Isa snorts at himself. _What a liar you are, Lunara._

Well, at least he knows they’ll _both_ be waiting.

* * *

Axel is an idiot. He knows this, oh does he know it, but it stings to be reminded. Staring at the notepad with Isa’s information on it is just self-punishment. Finally, _finally_ , he has another opportunity to speak with the cute guy from the animal shelter and he’s actually responsible about it! Which, yeah, good job there, Avery. Isa did come for a wizard’s help and advice, not to be flirted with, but couldn’t he have thrown in a joke about giving him a call for lunch at the end there?

Maybe not. With a groan, he slumps forward onto the counter. The stool is not sized for him and his back immediately complains, but dammit he needs to groan! No one’s in the store to notice his less than professional behavior anyway. Axel thumps his forehead against the counter three times and then sets his head on his arms instead. 

Okay, it was probably best not to throw in the offer of lunch at the end of a consultation. Maybe Isa was impressed by how professional he was and that would have spoiled it. Cool, so he just needs to keep being competent and impressive. “...Yeah, I give that all of an hour or two,” Axel scoffs to himself.

“Your stamina? I think you’re being generous.” Someone flicks the top of his head and Axel sits up to glare at the culprit. Larxene doesn’t look a bit sorry, smirking around the stick of a sucker sticking out of her mouth. She leans one hand on the counter, ruining his moping space, and arches an eyebrow at him. “What’s with you?”

“Did you get lunch?” Axel swings himself off the stool, rubbing at his back. “I’m starving.”

“Oh, so you’d be dead in an hour or two, got it.” Larxene swings her other arm up and sets a bag full of takeout containers on the counter. “Here, your thanks have already been noted as my delivery tip.”

Axel rolls his eyes at her. “I calculate for that already. God forbid you do a lunch run to be nice to your boss.”

“I prefer to think of you as my consistent donator.” Larxene twists the stick and makes no move to take her food from the bag. “A witch like me doesn’t need to _work._ ”

“She does, actually. Otherwise you’d get stuck doing generator work whenever power lines got cut.” Axel is actually hungry and digs into the bag. “Your favorite.”

She flips him off. “Fuck you.”

“You’re welcome.” Axel pops open a container full of french fries and takes several. It should be illegal for all varieties of potatoes to be so good. “Not that you care, but you missed an interesting customer.”

Larxene arches an eyebrow. “Unless they were gorgeous and dressed in at least one piece of leather, I don’t care.”

Axel chews another fry, drawing out the moment to annoy her. Once he swallows, he says slowly, “Well, there was a leather jacket…”

Her eyes narrow. “Was there a shirt on under it?”

“This is a business, Larx. Yes, he was wearing a shirt.”

“Ugh, a _man._ Fucker, you know I don’t care about them.” Larxene flips her hand through the air. She pulls out another container and turns toward the hall. “Why should I give any sort of shit about that?”

This is a terrible decision, but Axel’s been too responsible so far today. It’s time to be a bit stupid. “It was the cute guy from the animal shelter.”

Larxene stops on a dime and then looks at him with a smirk. “You idiot. Does anything need to be sanitized?”

He throws a fry at her. “You’re disgusting. No, he needs me to investigate for weird shit in the woods near his place. I barely flirted with him.”

“That’s why you’re doomed.” Larxene steps away from the fry and closer to the hall. “A true bitch would have had him over your de-.”

“ _Larx._ ” Axel glares at her. “Still my shop, still my business. Don’t be nasty.”

She sticks her tongue out at him, the center of it streaked blue from the sucker. “Don’t take your frustrations out on me. If you’re going to obsessively pine over the guy, you could at least make a damn move already.” Larxene unhooks the rope - she’s too short to step over it easily much to Axel’s endless amusement. “Or did you tell me because you want to be mocked relentlessly for being pathetic?”

“It keeps me humble.” Axel takes another fry, intent on eating the entire box. “Get me a plate.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She flicks her hand at him, a little bolt of lightning hitting the cash register to make its bell go off. “A plate and your usual ignored life advice coming right up.”

Axel rolls his eyes. “Like she’s one to talk,” he mutters. The day Larxene gets a girlfriend before he asks Isa out is a day the sun sets backward. She’s all brazen and arrogant until she’s faced with a pretty girl - then she’s a mess who can’t be charming to save her life. Not that Larxene is the casual person’s idea of charming.

He reaches for the notepad again, looking at Isa’s handwriting. It’s not shockingly neat or a terrible scrawl. It’s the average person’s handwriting and yet he can’t help but study the way Isa shapes each letter, how he writes his eights by drawing the top circle then the bottom instead of making it out of one line. Axel sighs and knows that he’s got it bad.

“How did you even end up like this over this guy?” Larxene sets the plate in front of him, her eyebrow already arched. “Didn’t you only meet him for like five minutes?”

“It was longer than that. He worked at the shelter where I got-.”

“The brat’s cat, I know. The damn thing keeps going for my shoes.” Larxene scowls and steals the stool to sit on. “That does not take that long.”

Axel shrugs, setting his sandwich on the plate. “He helped me out with finding the perfect cat and it was clear he cared about the animals. It was sweet.”

Larxene still has her eyebrow up as she chews, waiting. He sighs and gives her what she wants. “And he’s really handsome, okay? He’s got all this soft looking hair and these scars that just emphasize the shape of his face and his eyes…” Axel slumps his elbows onto the counter. “He’s so fucking pretty.”

“Gay.” Larxene leans back a bit, not far enough to rock the stool. “And now he needs your help. If you don’t make a move by the end of this, I’m mocking you forever.”

“I’m trying to be professional. He needs a wizard’s help, not a wizard’s poor idea of flirting.”

“You’re a very powerful wizard whose skill with certain spells is unmatched in the entire fucking country. If you can’t hook him with that, he’s probably full straight.”

Axel groans and slumps low enough that he almost puts his face in his sandwich. “No man who looks that good in a leather jacket should be straight!”

“There, there,” Larxene says with no sympathy and no conciliatory back patting. “Be a man and ask him. Make it part of his history you need for whatever.”

“Yeah, because there’s an easy way to slip in a question about his sexuality for this.” Axel lifts his head enough to glare at her. “Hey, so I was checking the woods and found something. You into guys? Pretty sure that’s a good way to look like a sleaze.”

“Oh right, you have manners.” She rolls her eyes. “Then you’re fucked. At least you have his number.” She points at it with one dark green nail. “Hang onto that, do your job, and then flirt afterwards. Problem solved, you can buy me a drink as thanks after you bang him.”

Axel wrinkles his nose and straightens up. “You’re so fucking nasty. Save that for your drink nights with _Marly._ ”

She looks at him in disgust. “Never say that again. I told you that while drunk, so do the decent person thing and forget it.”

Which means the subject is dropped on both sides. Axel grins and picks up his sandwich. “Forget what? All my memory is used on potions and hair styling tips. Speaking of, that special order flame-proof dye for the elemental that wanted it is done. Give them a call after this.”

Larxene sighs as she always does about work, but she doesn’t argue. Instead she starts talking about the _awful_ children that were in the restaurant while she was waiting. It gives Axel just enough headspace to think again about Isa - that flash of a smirk before he left, dressed in clothes Axel never would have expected after visiting the shelter, Isa has given him plenty to think about.

It’s a shame he also has a job to do. Well, maybe he should be grateful for an opening that isn’t adopting five more cats just for an excuse to talk. A wizard knows to be glad for the blessings they get. Half of magic is the opportunities you make for yourself. The rest is up to him.

* * *

Isa, contrary to what most people would think about him at a glance, hasn’t dated much. Sure, he’s been flirted with and thought about dates, but he hasn’t actually done that much dating. He’s had two serious relationships, one that ended amiably and one that was borderline nuclear destruction - the latter put him off the whole idea for a good long while.

Not that what he’s doing today is a _date._ It’s a lunch meeting to plan for the night of the full moon. It’s work. Which is why when he left his early shift at the animal shelter, he made sure to change into clothes that are both comfortable and also tend to get him more looks. Gods, he’s a little pathetic. Rubbing a hand down his face, fingers spreading over his scar for a moment, Isa tries to talk himself back into the sensible mindset he prefers. Yes, they’re having this meeting over lunch and yes, they’re doing it in a restaurant and not at the shop, but it’s for _information._

Axel had called him after three days with the opposite of news. _“There’s nothing. No reports of weird magic, creatures, changes in the leylines, or even portals to Hell opening up. Your woods are normal.”_

Isa had asked what the next step was and expected Axel to ask to come check his house. Instead, Axel asked for them to meet up and go over several possibilities. _“You know, over lunch, so we’ve actually got the energy to think this through!”_

Right. For the energy. Isa sighs. He can’t decide if he’d prefer Axel to just be this generally nice to everyone or if it was for him specifically. It can’t be pity - Isa’s case isn’t that bad. _And I hate pity, so if it’s that, I’ll have to kill him._ Not really, but Isa is no one’s charity case. And if Axel _is_ flirting… Isa sighs and crosses his arms. Well, he’ll deal with that if it becomes apparent. For now, business.

“Isa!” Axel is loping up the street toward him, sunglasses on and one hand lifted to wave. He’s in a bright green cropped jacket over a plain white shirt that makes for an eye burning combination in the sunlight. His boots are bright red leather from the looks of it, and despite himself Isa is a little impressed at that. He has a weakness for nice things, leave him alone. He lifts a hand so Axel knows he sees him.

Axel stops beside him, grinning. “I should have known you’d be early. You’re the serious type.”

“I prefer the responsible type, but yes.” Isa lifts an eyebrow, but his lips twitch upward as well. “Did you walk here?”

“They won’t let me waste magic on teleporting, so I stick with my feet for most journeys.” Axel points toward the door. “Ready to go in?” Isa nods and Axel leads the way into the cafe. It’s a cute little place outside and in and Isa feels yet again that this could very easily slip from business to pleasure.

_And the only reason you’re so stuck on the idea is because you think he’s attractive. Admit it to yourself at least._ Isa sighs and brushes at his jacket - if only he could brush his tangled thoughts away as easily as the imaginary dust. Physical attraction isn’t everything and this is an important issue. Further flirting can wait.

Axel’s already sitting down at one of the small tables. He stretches his legs out under the table and chair opposite, then straightens up with a groan. “I keep telling them to get better chairs. I can never get comfortable.”

“And yet we’re here, because…?” Isa takes the seat opposite Axel and looks toward the counter. Shouldn’t they order?

“Because the food’s great and I’ll put up with a lot if it means decent food I didn’t have to cook.” Axel drops his elbows on the table, pushing his sunglasses up into his hair. “Don’t worry about ordering. They’ll come around first.”

“Alright.” Isa leans back in the chair. “So.”

Axel laughs a bit. “Yeah, yeah, business.” He pulls a notepad from his pocket and flips through the pages until he finds a blank one. “I was hoping to get some info, but my plan at this point is to come over the night of the full moon and come on the hunt with you.”

“Is that wise?” Isa crosses his arms loosely over his chest. “I keep myself well managed, but strangers under the moon aren’t the best idea.”

Axel shrugs. “I’m not worried about it. We’ve met a couple times so that should be enough for me to work with.” He pulls a pen out and taps it against the notepad. “Mind if I ask a couple questions about your life?”

“So long as they’re for this and not making me a profile on Lonely Werewolves dot com, that’s fine.” Isa quirks an eyebrow and is rewarded with a larger laugh.

“No sneaky profile, I promise.” Axel swirls the pen in a circle. “When did you first turn?”

“I was sixteen. It’s been a bit over ten years now.” Isa still remembers it so clearly, because some things do not fade with time. “I’ve never had any incidents, but I had the usual close calls that first year.”

Axel nods, not writing yet. “Yeah, good thing nothing happened. Where were you at when you first turned if you don’t mind sharing?”

“I’m not sure it’s relevant.” Isa’s eyes narrow and Axel holds both hands up.

“Sometimes issues later can crop up because of the past. I’m trying to look into things and see if any environmental factors could be playing a part. General area is fine, I don’t need your old address.”

Fair enough. Isa nods. “Radiant Garden, it’s where I grew up.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Axel’s voice isn’t sharp, but it is loud. 

Isa immediately glares at him. “Wh-.”

“That’s where I’m from!” Axel grins widely at him, apparently unbothered by Isa’s surprise or anger. “I lived in Radiant Garden until I was thirteen!”

_Oh._ “Oh.” Isa relaxes his arms, rubbing at his shoulder. “Well, it was a rather large city.”

“It felt so damn tiny sometimes though, right? I bet everyone wouldn’t stop talking about you after shit happened.” Axel leans back in his chair, making its legs squeak over the floor. “So suffocating.”

It was. It felt like every pair of eyes was staring holes into him - they stared at the scars and his face as if they could see the monster just waiting to split his skin open. Isa nods and smiles slightly. “I only got turned because I was having a fit of teenage angst and wanted to go walking late at night through the woods near our house.”

Axel shakes his head. “Places like that are full of misery. It’s a pity how much it spreads. My life got a lot better once I left. Of course, I also had magic at that point…”

Isa laughs. “That would change things.”

“Just a bit.” Axel’s smile is impish now and Isa’s heart thumps a bit harder. _It is unfair how one man can be both cute and handsome in equal measure._ Axel waves his hand. “What teenager isn’t going to be excited about having the ability to set literally anything on fire?”

“Me. It took a lot more hair spray to do my hair as a teen.” Isa tugs the ends of a bit of his hair. “Add in the bleach and dye and I was a walking fire risk.”

“Maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t know each other. I would have burned all your hair off.”

“Purposefully?”

Axel shakes his head. “Completely accidentally. I would have met you and my hands would have caught on fire.”

_He thinks you’re attractive._ “I would have been quite furious, but that was my default state as a teenager.” Isa glances away, still no staff coming to check with them, and it gives him courage to say something he’d normally keep to himself. “It _was_ a redheaded boy who made me aware of my attraction to men as well as women.”

When he looks back at Axel, the wizard has gone red and is rubbing his nose. He stares down at the table, very poorly pretending that he’s taking notes. Isa coughs to cover his laugh and leans forward again. “So...environmental factors?”

“Right, yeah!” Axel lifts his head, but his gaze doesn’t quite meet Isa’s. “I was wondering if it’d be a thing like you’re pining for the place you first turned, but let’s be real, this place is way better than Radiant Garden.”

“In some ways,” Isa agrees. “Before this started, I thought I was quite settled here. I never had any disruptions when I first moved. It’s not that different from Radiant Garden in its environment.”

“True. It’s not like the forest changes from evergreens to rainforest or something really disruptive.” Axel taps the end of his pen against his lips, staring down at his notepad. “If it’s not the woods themselves and there’s no incidents…” He mutters under his breath, scribbling a few lines.

Which leaves it to Isa to look around and finally catch a waiter’s eye. They nod and gather menus. Good, Isa’s starving. There’s only a few days till the moon, but he has faith that they’ll figure out something. It’d be nice to wake up in his bed instead of the woods this time. He sighs as the waiter comes over, glancing back at Axel.

He meets green eyes that are watching him intently. There’s a depth to them without the dancing light of amusement that Axel seems to constantly hold. Isa wants to look away, but he holds that gaze, studying the man across from him. After a moment that seems interminable, Axel blinks and looks at the waiter. “Hey, you guys still got that strawberry lemonade?”

Isa’s heart is racing and he looks down, fidgeting with his hair as he tries to pull himself back together. _What did he see? Was that magic?_ No wizard can really read minds, so the official statement says, but what’s the saying? _Eyes are the window to the soul._ How far down did Axel peer?

_You’re being ridiculous. He was just looking at you as he thought up a plan._

_Or he thinks you’re attractive and was taking a moment to study you._

_Wouldn’t he have looked away when he was caught then?_

“-sa? What do you want to drink?”

He looks up, quickly pulling up his usual professional composure. “I’ll take a coffee, please.” It won’t help him sleep later, but a warm drink in his hands is just the grounding he needs.

As the waiter leaves, Isa looks at Axel again. Axel is spinning the pen back and forth between his fingers, looking down at his notes again. “I think,” Axel says, “the only other thing I want to do before the full moon is do a couple undead checks. Dealing with ghouls is the fucking worst and that could get really dicey if you’re sensing some kind of old graves or something.”

Isa shudders. “I pray it’s nothing like that.” Werewolves might be the original guards against the undead, but he used to have nightmares about rotten hands reaching for him in the dark. “You can check with spells for them?”

Axel nods and sets his pen down. He holds his hands up and makes a circle. “Most sunlight and fire type spells can be refocused to detect any lingering undead energy. With a scrying mirror, I don’t even have to walk the woods for miles. I can cast it over a wide area and it’ll ping on anything that shouldn’t be buried back there.” He grimaces. “Solved a cold case like that once. But we’re at lunch, let’s not talk about that!” His smile is a quick flash of cover over grim reality.

Isa will take it gladly. He nods and picks up his menu. “Do you have any recommendations?”

“Oh, do I.” Axel leans across the table, ready to dissect the menu for him.

Truthfully, their business is mostly handled already, but Isa won’t be the one to mention it. He watches Axel’s face as he describes the food and can feel himself smiling. He’s starting to look forward to the full moon for the first time in years.


	2. In which a wizard and a werewolf go for a walk

“So, how long do I wait to call a clean-up crew?”

“It’s called the Magical Restoration Crew and you give me at least twenty-four hours before you decide I’m missing and someone needs to track down my corpse.” Axel kicks the stool out of his way, ignoring how it bangs against a shelf. He tugs one of the herb bundles down from the drying rack and gives it a sniff. Nodding, he adds it to his bag. “Which no one is going to have to do, because this is a standard tracking assignment. Maybe I’ll have to fight a ghoul or something, but that’s minor.”

Vanitas arches an eyebrow from his position behind the counter. His cat Sprite is asleep in his lap, one of Vanitas’s hands petting her back, but Axel’s sure she’d be on his side if she was awake. “Last time you fought a ghoul, you ended having to fight off a pack of them and almost died.”

“Incorrect.” Axel waggles a finger at his apprentice. “I cooked them to ash and everything was fine. I even had the curse cure on hand like a perfectly prepared wizard - because I am one.” He moves around a few of the bundles and breathes in the scents that fall from them. Hm, would Isa like to help in the garden sometime? He seems like a man who likes to work with his hands.

“You’re blushing,” Vanitas points out, now scrolling through twitter on his phone. “If I have to call the magic corpse crew because you forget about me for twenty-four hours while you’re doing this guy, I’m going to be annoyed.”

Axel flicks his fingers. Magic grabs Vanitas’s hood and then slams it over his head. Vanitas curses and grabs at it, but Axel’s magic holds it down over his eyes. Axel lets him struggle for a moment and then undoes the spell with a snap. Vanitas shoves his hood down, hair ruffled every which way and eyes burning with anger. “Fuck you.”

“No.” Axel moves closer to him to get to the locked cabinet set beside the counter - a feat made much more dangerous by actively pissing Vanitas off. Luckily for him, Vanitas is his apprentice and actually wants to keep being his apprentice. 

Vanitas does look down at his cat. “Bite him,” he orders. The cat yawns and rolls over so he’ll rub her belly. He sighs and does so.

“Some day she’ll be as fierce as you and then I’ll be very fearful of your wrath indeed.” Axel sketches the unlocking rune in the air with a finger and then swings the cabinet door open. Vanitas has his own version for getting into the cabinet when Axel’s out, but generally they make sure any orders for the touchy stuff go through Axel. He sorts through small bottles of dragon heartstring and unicorn horn shavings, looking for his last full moon charged mirror. It reveals anything in its light and he only uses it in emergencies. 

There’s a ding that could be the door or Vanitas’s phone and Axel looks up. It’s Vanitas’s phone, but Vanitas is looking at him instead of his screen. Axel arches an eyebrow. “What?”

“How do you know you’re not going to get bit? If this is something he’s hunting, it could be dangerous to go with him. Werewolves don’t like humans around on hunts.”

“Huh, you do pay attention when I talk. Cool.” Axel extracts the small mirror and places it carefully in a pocket sized just for it in his bag. “Because I checked with Isa already about what medication he takes for the moon and if he had any concerns about aggression. _And_ because I know how to protect myself.” He smiles at Vanitas as he shuts the cabinet again. “Nice of you to worry about your mentor’s limbs.”

Vanitas flips him off, but the flush on his ears gives him away. “I’m not finding another teacher when I’m a year out from being done with my apprenticeship.”

“Aw, fuck you, Vanitas.” Axel musses up his hair again and Vanitas smacks his arm.

“Fuck me yourself, coward,” Vanitas fires back and then goes very red. “Shit, ignore that. Default.”

“That’s a loaded default reply.” Axel arches his eyebrow again. “Is this how you and Ven always talk to each other?”

“No,” Vanitas snaps and pushes Axel away from him. “It’s a standard internet reply. But feel free to use it with your soon-to-be boyfriend.”

Now it’s Axel’s turn to flush. “I think I’d rather face the ghoul pack again than say something like that to a _customer._ ”

“Customer, friend, crush, whichever it is you’re doing now.” Vanitas sets Sprite on the counter. She stretches out each leg and then hops down onto the floor. Off to cause chaos, but it’s Vanitas’s problem to clean up before Axel gets back. “So long as you come back.”

“Ass.” Axel shoulders his bag and looks around the shop. Is he forgetting anything? “I’m not saying it to anybody. It’s a stupid thing to say, _obviously_.”

Vanitas mutters something indecipherable and goes back to his phone. “Just...text me once you’re done, so I know the corpse call isn’t necessary.”

“I’ll keep you updated,” Axel says wryly. “Give me a call if anything goes weird here. And don’t forget-.”

“Bring the crystals from the back inside once the moon sets. I got it.” Vanitas flashes him the okay and then points to the shelf closest to the door. “Don’t forget that.”

Forget what? Axel crosses over to the shelf which is full of books. “Vanitas…”

“The red one!”

Axel grabs the red one on the shelf at his eye level and almost throws it at Vanitas’s head. _How to woo a wolf: the do’s and don’ts of werewolf romance._ Axel shoves it back on the shelf, flips Vanitas off, and strides for the door. “I’m casting a luck spell for you tomorrow!”

As he turns to tug the door shut behind him, he sees Vanitas looking across the room, probably at Sprite. “It’s not like my luck can get that much worse,” he tells her, grinning.

_Brat._ Axel lets him have that and closes the shop door. “Alright,” he says to the yard. “Here we go.”

* * *

The whole sky is orange, a particularly auspicious sign. Werewolves tend to thrive under a clear autumn moon. At minimum, Axel will take it as a good sign because it means there won’t be ghouls out tonight. He was already pretty sure it wasn’t any sort of the undead Isa was tracking as he wandered the woods, but it’s good to have some reassurance.

It’s definitely the mindless undead and not anything else that has Axel on edge as he looks at Isa’s house. _You’re here for work,_ he reminds himself. He’s going to be a professional tonight. It’s what he owes Isa, both as a wizard and a strange sort-of friend. He’s not here to let someone down on the night they’re most vulnerable.

He strides up the walk to Isa’s front door with a confidence that used to be much easier to hold onto. They say you should feel wise as you gain knowledge and experience; Axel mostly feels like he’s twelve again, all awkward elbows and knees. He’s going into Isa’s _house._ He’s going to see how the other man arranges his things. This is true intimacy.

The stupid fluttery feelings in his chest last until Isa pulls the door open. Isa leans against the frame on one arm, his hair loose around his head. Bags under his eyes and lines of exhaustion are pressed into his face. “Evening,” he says in a tired mutter.

The wizard professional in him takes over. Axel gets an arm under Isa’s and helps him away from the door. “I know it’s rude to magic open anyone’s locks, but you guys always make me think about it. It feels like the less shitty option compared to making you move around.”

“I’m fine,” Isa says flatly, despite the fact that he’s slumping into Axel’s shoulder. “I’ve dealt with it for years.”

“Sure, but it doesn’t make it fun.” Axel gets Isa over to his couch, a very nice plush black and white thing, and then goes back to close the front door. He barely takes in the house as he opens his bag up and digs through it. Vials clink against his rings and Axel almost dumps out two different crystals, but he finds what he’s looking for. He rattles the over the counter pain meds Isa’s direction. “Did you take any?”

Isa squints at the bottle, but he can hardly read the print from this distance. “I always take my medication the night of the moon. You want me alert anyway, so I don’t want anything extra.”

“I want you to be the same as the last moon when you went wandering through the woods,” Axel argues, but doesn’t force the pills on Isa. He does invite himself into Isa’s kitchen, pulling open his fridge door to inspect the contents. “We’ve got a little bit till proper sunset. You said you weren’t an early shifter.”

“No, I’m not.” Isa has his head tipped back to rest against the couch cushions when Axel glances at him. “What are you doing?”

Axel grabs a water bottle from the fridge. “Keeping you hydrated.”

“I didn’t hire you to be a babysitter.” Isa opens one eye and there’s already gold flickering in his iris. Axel ignores it, twisting open the water bottle as he crosses back to the couch. He hands it over and it only takes Isa a moment to give in and take it.

“Maybe not, but you’re hardly the first werewolf I’ve helped out. You guys deserve to have someone around who’s not waiting for their bones to stretch out. It makes it easier to think.” Axel eyes the couch and then sits down a comfortable distance from Isa. He drops his bag on Isa’s coffee table, uncaring of the slightly clatter as everything inside settles. “I’m here to help, Isa, that’s the whole point. That doesn’t start _after_ you run off after who knows what in the woods.”

Isa sips from the bottle and stares into the air instead of at Axel. “I’m...not very good at being looked after,” he says quietly after a minute. “So long as it’s not bound up in pity-.”

“Hardly,” Axel scoffs. “I’d be a shitty person to be boohooing over your life when I’ve never lived it. You’re a werewolf, it comes with some shit, but I don’t _pity_ you.” Empathy is different. He crosses his arms. “Lucky for you, I’m _great_ at assisting people, so even your standoffish attitude doesn’t put me off. You’re no worse than an elderly vampire who swears she doesn’t need replacement fangs.” He grins as Isa’s head jerks around to stare at him. 

Offense and humor war for Isa’s face and humor finally wins out. Isa exhales in amusement and drops his head back again. “I’m glad to know that I’m not the most crotchety person you’ve ever met. I’m not quite eighty years old yet after all.”

“You’re an infant,” Axel says with delight. “A little baby puppy.”

Isa punches him in the arm and Axel absolutely deserves it. “I’m close to thirty, fuck you.”

_Fuck me yourself._ Axel manages not to spit that out and reminds himself to strangle Vanitas later for putting the words in his head in the first place. “Thirty, eighty, do you even know?” He grins and is glad that Isa’s too tired to notice the flush he can feel at the tips of his ears.

Isa sighs at him, but he looks more relaxed than he did when Axel arrived. A good thing to have accomplished before moonrise. Axel settles an arm on the back of the couch, his hand a polite distance from Isa’s head. His hair looks so damn soft and he wants to know what it’s like to run his fingers through i-.

All longing thoughts are put on hold as Isa’s face tightens with pain and he slumps forward. Axel catches him by the shoulder. He hardly needs to ask, but does anyway. “Moonrise?”

“Moonrise,” Isa spits out. His breathing has turned harsh and his eyes are squeezed shut. “You need to-.”

“I need to help you away from the table before you slam into it.” Axel stands, tugging Isa up with him. Isa’s made of wires coiled tight, every muscle thread practically vibrating as his body fights the pull of the moon. Axel doesn’t take him far, helping Isa lie down on an open part of the floor.

Isa squeezes his hands into fists and when his next breath hisses out, Axel can see his teeth already growing. Isa’s eyes open and the ring of gold around his pupil is glowing. Axel wastes another second squeezing Isa’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back once you’re done. We’ll figure it out tonight.”

He doesn’t expect a reply, not with the moon’s call so strong. Axel straightens and strides from the living room. He ducks into the first door he sees in the hall and finds himself in the bathroom. “Wow,” he mutters, shutting the door firmly. “Good job making yourself comfortable, Avery.”

Axel sits on the edge of the tub and rubs the back of his neck. Once Isa’s shifted, it shouldn’t take long for whatever instinct is dragging him outside to the woods to kick in. Axel will have to be quick to make sure Isa knows he’s coming with. He reaches for his bag to sort through his tools and then drops his face into his hand. His bag is out on the coffee table. Great. “At least I know it doesn’t smell appealing to werewolves.” He found that out on his last werewolf job when the wolf in question stuck their whole snout in and then sneezed for the next ten minutes. It wasn’t the best moment for either of them.

“Nothing to do but wait then.” Wait and think entirely too much about the pain of werewolf shifts. Sure, advancements have been made in painkillers for werewolves, letting the effectiveness carry over despite the size and other chemical changes taking place under the moon. But nothing entirely removes the ache in bones and muscles that have been forced into a different shape and then back again within twelve hours.

And it feels different knowing that it’s Isa. His stupid crush makes him feel worse about it despite that Isa’s been dealing with it for over a decade. It doesn’t seem fair. _You’re pitying him and he’d hate it. This is his life and he lives it._ “Ugh,” he groans aloud. “Some fucking wizard I’m being tonight.”

Something bangs in the living room and Axel jerks to his feet. That would make for a very quick shift and he doesn’t like it. Nothing was close enough for Isa to hit during, so it must have been something else. Axel eases the bathroom door open and looks toward the living room. He can’t see shit and lifts a hand.

His magic flows from his fingers at a whispered command and the seeking spell floats through the air until it finds a werewolf. When a flare of blue flashes from the living room, Axel relaxes slightly. Isa’s still here. Axel moves silently to the end of the hall to see if anything else has snuck in. He keeps his eyes away from where he helped Isa lie down, not wanting to see anything so intensely private.

Nothing in the living room looks amiss and Axel frowns. He _heard_ something, he did. What was it…? 

Something bangs again and his head snaps around. Outside one of the windows, a squirrel stares back at him. It has one paw on the bird feeder and when it lets go, the feeder swings back, banging against the pole. The squirrel shoves another seed into its mouth and then bolts. “Jackass,” Axel mutters after it. He retreats a couple steps down the hall and crosses his arms over his chest. His stupid heart is racing, but at least he doesn’t have to start magic blasting yet.

He stays there, going over tracking spells and other useful tactics in his head, until he hears the heavy tread of a large, four-legged creature moving. Isa’s up and it’s time to really get to work. Axel moves back to the end of the hall, clearly putting himself in view. He can see the back of the wolf near the coffee table...that his bag is on. “Goddammit. Isa, no!”

The wolf’s head lifts, both ears up, and Axel doesn’t quite make eye contact. Isa knows him, but sometimes the wolf shift can make things...complicated. He holds his hands open at his sides and watches that much larger nose sniff the air. After a moment, Isa moves his way, still sniffing. Axel waits and takes in Isa’s other shape.

The wolf form is fucking blue. Not grey-blue, not grey catching light reflections to look blue, Isa is a fucking bright blue wolf. His eyes are now fully gold, only a few flecks of Isa’s natural green left to catch the light. His fur is thick and his tail is long and fluffy enough to hide the fact that it’s a weapon at this size. And Isa’s up there on the size scale. Axel’s seen only one werewolf that was bigger and that one was the size of the average _couch._

Axel offers Isa a hand and gets a nose shoved against it immediately. After a very thorough sniff, Isa’s tail wags slightly and he sits down in front of Axel. Axel puts his hand between Isa’s ears and the wolf licks his arm. “Alright,” Axel says with a smile, “we’re off to a good start.” He rubs Isa’s head, his fur is as soft as his hair looks, and then moves to get his bag. Settling it on his shoulder, he looks down at Isa. “You’re in the lead.”

Isa’s nose lifts, scenting the air. Purposefully, he turns and walks into the kitchen. Axel follows and gets to see Isa stand up and sets his front paws on the counter. There’s a fresh cut of meat lying there on a plate. Isa takes it carefully with his teeth and then hops down again. Axel snorts and goes to check the back door. Isa said he’d leave it unlocked and open for them tonight, but it never hurts to check while Isa gets something in his stomach. No doubt he’ll need the energy for the hunt. 

The door’s unlocked and Axel steps outside into the cool evening air. The moon’s just above the treeline, its glow tinted orange. It makes it easy to see across the yard to the forest that continues on for miles from this point. Isa chose a place on the edge of town; it makes sense for a solitary werewolf, but it’s going to make things interesting. Axel set out stones to catch the harvest moon’s light at home and he hopes that some of autumn’s bounty is his to reap tonight.

He turns back to the house and Isa is right behind him. The wolf licks his chops and huffs through his nose at Axel. “Oh, excuse me.” Axel bows to him and moves out of the way. Isa snorts through his nose and pads past him. That tail smacks Axel’s arm and he rubs the spot with a hiss. “Ass.”

Isa pays his complaint no mind, his muzzle once again lifted into the air. He scents, taking in a million things that Axel will never smell, and then turns in a circle. Tracking time. Axel pulls the back door shut and rubs his hands together. “Alright,” he tells Isa, “let’s find this thing.”

* * *

He follows Isa almost a mile into the woods before they hit any kind of snag. Even then it’s not a big snag: Isa stops in a clearing and sits down to stare up at the moon. It gives Axel a chance to catch his breath and take a long drink of water. Thank the stars, Isa's not been sprinting, but even a wolf’s slow lope is bigger than his stride. Axel huffs out a breath and makes himself stay standing. If he sits, it’s going to be a fight to get himself back to jogging after the big blue wolf that is his client for the night.

Isa’s nose twitches and he stands. He swings his head from one side to the other, surveying the clearing, and then looks at Axel. His tail droops and he whines. Axel carefully rubs the fluff of his neck. “Don’t worry, that’s why I’m here. Whatever it is, we’ll find it.” He flips his bag open and grabs one of the vials of oil inside. 

Axel dabs a bit of it onto each of his eyelids and then offers a hand to Isa. The wolf sniffs his hand and then sneezes. “Yeah, they probably stink to you. It’ll only be a drop, I promise.” He taps a dot of the oil to Isa’s head, centered above his eyes. Isa shakes his head and sneezes again, but doesn’t rub his face in the dirt to get it off. “Thanks,” Axel tells him. “Let’s see if this helps.”

Lifting his hands, Axel closes his eyes and focuses on the simmering feeling in his blood as his magic builds. He touches the corners of his eyes and whispers the spell for clear sight. Magic flows over his face and he can feel some of it wind around Isa. He waits for it to settle and then drops his hands. “Okay,” he says to Isa. “Hopefully, I get a feeling of what you’re looking for now. Got a direction?”

Isa scents the air and then starts off toward the northeast. Axel huffs out a breath and follows him. “This would be so much easier if I could ask for a wolf ride.” But that is not on the list of acceptable questions for a werewolf who you are only just becoming friends with. Really, that’s probably on the one night stand questions list in the “How to Flirt with Werewolves” book. Axel’s face is warm, but he’s blaming it on the extended exercise. It’s not his fault Isa’s the size of a damn _direwolf._

There’s a tug on his eyes and Axel looks right. Something flashes through the brush, rustling it, and quickly moving away from them. Axel puts his fingers to his lips and whistles loudly. Isa stops and so does whatever caught Axel’s attention. He lowers his hand, staring into the brush. It has to be something magical, nothing else would have caught _his_ magic so strongly. Axel takes one step forward, then another. He’s about to take a third when whatever it is bolts.

“Dammit!” Axel throws a hand out, raw magic twisting through the air to tangle between several trees. It won’t stop it, but it will force whatever it is to circle back around to them.

With a growl, Isa leaps past him. “Don’t hurt it,” Axel shouts. “Not unless it attacks you first!” He pushes himself faster.

Their target darts away from both werewolf and magic, racing for a safer bit of the woods. Unfortunately, a werewolf at a sprint is still faster than most things. Isa leaps again and lands in front of the rustling brush with another growl. Something in the brush squeaks, Isa’s teeth flash in the light, and then Axel reaches him.

“Hold on, hold on.” He puts a hand to Isa’s side and steps in front of him. He squats down, one hand on his kit. He reaches forward with the other and pushes the long leaves of a fern aside. Crouched behind it is a jackalope, shivering in distress. “Shit,” Axel mutters. “I am so sorry.” He steps back, taking a seat beside Isa. “False alarm,” he tells the wolf. “He’s out enjoying the moon too.”

The jackalope eyes them from the safety of the fern. When Isa sits down with a huff, the jackalope emerges. He squeaks a reprimand at both of them and then takes off into the woods at a clip Isa would be hard put to match from a sitting start. Isa huffs through his nose as if he doesn’t approve of whatever was said and Axel chuckles. “Yeah, my bad. I should have checked before going all hunter-trapper on him.”

Isa stares at him balefully, his golden eyes much more intimidating when they’re not in Isa’s cozy if rather weirdly clean house. Axel holds a hand up. “We’re not done yet, don’t worry. Let’s get back on track.” He pushes himself back to his feet, dusting the leaves off of his pants. His clear sight spell is still very much intact, perfect. Axel gestures for Isa to take the lead again. “Next one will be it. We’ve got this.”

If wolves could roll their eyes, Axel gets the feeling Isa would. The wolf stands, swats him with his tail, and then walks back through the brush the way they came. That tail is still a weapon and his leg is stinging, but Axel doesn’t voice a complaint. Better a tail swat than a snap of those teeth. Besides, it was basically a warm up - or that’s what he’ll tell himself.

With a sigh, Axel jogs after Isa. “Not undead,” he mutters as he catches up to the great blue wolf. “They don’t come out on nights like this and I did scry to check the usual spots and detected nothing. I doubt you’d be wandering over wildlife, even if it was a jackalope. You prepared food for yourself, so it’s not that you’re starving and trying to actually hunt.” They already talked about that, but it feels good to rehash it. “What else would set off a werewolf...vampires?” He looks down at Isa.

Isa snorts through his nose and then shakes his head, the fur around his neck and shoulders poofing out and then settling again. Axel reaches and ruffles it a bit. Isa tolerates this so clearly no harm has been done. “Right,” Axel says. “They’re undead and my spell was general enough to pick them up, so we’d know if some asshole vampire was out here annoying you.”

“So what the fuck is it?” Axel looks around them, thankful again for the bright light of the moon. This would be miserable if it was overcast tonight. “Are you playing some kind of tracking game with a really smart dog?” Isa can’t actually answer him, basically a really smart dog himself. Axel tugs a piece of his hair hanging by his ear and sighs again. “It has to be _something_ to drag you outside for more than a couple moons in a row.”

But his sight spell and his magic aren’t illuminating anything new, even as they walk for another half an hour. The only thing that changes is the moon’s position and the trees they’re walking through. Axel fiddles with his bag and finally, stops. Isa stops as well, turning to look at him with his ears perked.

Axel grimaces at him and then quickly hides his teeth before Isa thinks he’s being aggressive. “I think it’s time to try something else. We’re just _wandering._ ” Axel flips his bag open as Isa sits down, nose lifted to the wind again. Axel runs his fingers over his tools, vials of oil and small crystals and yes, a stake. He scowls at the contents, debating a clear thoughts spell to try and read Isa’s werewolf intentions. That can be tricky in the best of circumstances - a mind caught by the moon’s light probably isn’t his best bet.

“Well, guess we go straight to the mirr-.”

With a growl that’s almost deafening, Isa is back on all four feet, fur bristling over his shoulders. Axel’s head snaps up, but his human eyes see nothing in the trees. Before he can call light or fire to his hand, Isa snaps his teeth together and springs into the woods. The growl continues as he gives chase after something that’s pissed him off. 

“Shit.” Axel snaps his fingers, calling for a globe of fire that he lets hang at his shoulder. He wastes another few seconds sketching a rune onto both of his shoes, but it’ll be seconds saved soon. His magic curls through the runes and his shoes start to glow. It’s a stupid flashy spell at the best of times, but for once, he’s going to make good use of it.

With a push of a foot against the ground, Axel’s no longer connected to the earth. Without roots and tripping hazards in his way, he sprints after Isa. Running through the air is remarkably like running on the ground, dodging of tree branches included. So long as Axel doesn’t look down at the ground, he can imagine he’s just a foot taller. At the very least, he’s no longer held back by the brush or by the earth itself not being a perfectly solid running platform. “And to think,” Axel pants, “I only learned it to be able to climb in and out of second story windows.”

A snap of his fingers sends another fire globe darting ahead of him to light up the trees and to find Isa. It must find the werewolf as its frantic movement forward steadies into a singular position about fifteen feet ahead. _Perfect._ Axel pushes his legs a bit faster and Isa himself comes into view.

The werewolf is still growling off and on and intent on running down whatever he’s scented. In the flickering firelight at each of their shoulders, Axel can see that whatever it is is also running on all fours and only slightly smaller than Isa. It’s some kind of beast, but what? Axel snaps another fire globe to life, sending it after the thing.

Whatever it is doesn’t shy from the light or the fire, more proof that it’s not something undead, and Axel can see that it’s also covered in thick, dark fur. _It’s not another wolf, is it?_ Werewolves can be territorial, but they’re not prone to picking fights with each other right off unless one of them is starving or suffering from some sort of fervor. (Axel understands the fear and hate most werewolves have for lunar eclipses.)

The closer he gets, the better he picks up bits and pieces of Isa’s target. It’s not a wolf, its shape slimmer and lean like a wildcat. Its tail is weirdly thick, with a strange lack of fur from what he can tell in the light. Its back is hunched, a lump on one shoulder that seems too large to be good. It’s also determined to outrun Isa instead of fighting, so Axel should probably intervene. That said, if it _is_ the reason Isa’s been out here for more than one moon, Axel needs to do more than let it get away.

A little magic net isn’t going to work this time. Axel pulls his wand from the brace on his wrist with a flourish. “Time for the even more old fashioned way.” Most beasts with some sort of magic in them have thick hides - it doesn’t tend to protect them from a stunning spell right to the head. Which okay, aiming at its head over the lump on its shoulder, while its running from Isa, while Axel is running to keep up with both of them and maintaining the flight spell is tricky, but goddammit Axel has a reputation and he has absolutely done worse and weirder.

He plants one foot against the closest tree and launches himself forward with a kick off its bark. It gets him over Isa who growls louder, but he doesn’t have time to snap at Axel for getting in the way. Axel twists his wand, making a harsh x in the air in bright blue, and then sends it flying at the beast.

It hits with a splash like water and the thing tumbles right over its front paws to land in a heap. Isa skids to stop, still growling, and Axel’s landing is hardly anymore graceful as he thumps to the ground and staggers several steps until he finds his balance. The three fire globes hover around them and the tree branches are thin enough that the moon’s light reveals almost everything.

Axel steps closer and then takes two very quick steps back. “That,” he tells the still growling Isa, “is a _chimera._ ”

The beast has the head and body of a panther, a giant snake for a tail, and the lump rises to reveal itself as a goat head. The goat screams, a more natural sound than one would expect from a supernatural creature. The panther head echoes it, growling at them.

Isa growls louder, because of fucking course he does. Axel resists the urge to nudge him with a leg and focuses on keeping his wand down at his side. A flick of a finger stills the fire globes in the air, brightening the space further.

Okay, time to prioritize. Axel keeps his gaze on the chimera, sorting through his thoughts. Number one, what the fuck. Number two, _how_ the fuck. Number three, what the fuck is he going to do about this? He rubs his free hand against his pants, a fidget that won’t get him lunged at hopefully. “Chimeras,” he says quietly to an Isa who isn’t listening, “can actually be natural. Everybody talks about them being made through magic or alchemy, but that’s only true for a few. Sometimes, animals and creatures just get made by natural magic. My mentor loved talking about them, but I kind of zoned out after the first hour.”

“The thing is,” Axel continues, well aware he’s talking to himself, “they’re not supposed to be here. See, they’re like dragons - we make sure they’re in places where they won’t be bothered by idiot humans, vampires wanting to try something ‘exotic,’ or werewolves on the hunt.” He glances quickly at Isa and then back to the chimera. “No offense.”

Isa snorts through his nose and takes a step forward. The chimera growls even louder, fur bristling and snake tail lashing. Clearly, this isn’t going to be a calming spell and phone up the magical creature protection society solution. The chimera is angry at being hunted and who knows what it’s endured before that to be here. Isa stares the thing down, equally ready to fight.

Axel had better figure out how to limit bloodshed and quickly. He tugs out a crystal full of the soft grey light of a rainy afternoon. With a swipe of his thumb, he activates the magic he laid into it, tossing it in between Isa and the chimera. They both snap, but neither catches the crystal in their teeth. When it hits the ground, its light spreads, reaching for them. Isa flicks his ears back.

The chimera, to put it mildly, loses its _shit._ As Axel’s magic comes closer, the chimera snarls, leaping away from it before it can be affected. Now incredibly pissed off, the eyes in its goat head rolling to show the whites, the chimera charges for the two of them. Claws extend as it leaps off the ground.

Isa twists, not quite fast enough, and the chimera slams into his shoulder. They tumble over each other snapping and growling. 

“Okay!” Axel lifts his wand, the tip glowing very brightly. No messing about - time to be the fucking wizard. He twists his wand and it grows to its full size: a wooden staff that hooks at the top with an eternal flame burning within the loop. Axel swings it out, drops of fire falling from it in a line in front of him. The embers flicker and then at his gesture, twist together into a wheel. It spins through the air, cutting between Isa and the chimera and forcing them further apart.

This further show of magic sets the chimera off again - it screams from both heads. Its tail snaps forward, fangs sinking into one of Isa’s legs. Isa howls and then locks his jaws around it, ripping until the tail lets go. The chimera retreats a few steps, breathing heavily and blood dripping from several small scratches and bites.

Isa shakes his fur out, backing up until he’s in front of Axel again. He growls and Axel exhales. “Okay, this time give me a-.”

With a demonic yowl, the chimera flings itself at them. Isa snaps his teeth at a throat, but misses. Axel goes for what he’s got and slams his staff into the chimera, knocking it aside before it can claw his face off. Axel darts back to relative safety behind Isa, mind whirling. They can’t kill it, not unless things get very, very dire, but subduing it when it’s clearly upset by magic is not going to be pretty.

Isa and the chimera trade blows, both of their heavy paws smacking at each other as one of them tries to get the upper hand...or paw. Axel takes the second to draw a sharp rune on the back of his hand. It glows a bright red, settling a shield against most blows across his skin. He’ll be safe for an attack or two and that gives him a chance to get closer.

_If Isa distracts it and I can get behind it, then I can knock it out._ Axel takes a breath and lifts his staff high. Light in a mess of colors shoots out, exploding in flashes throughout the trees. It’s harsh and the chimera howls and screams in fear and rage. In between the flashes, Axel can see Isa lunging in, his teeth grabbing for the chimera’s shoulder.

He never likes this part. Some creatures will never be at peace with the modern world, will be taken from the places that are meant to be theirs and twisted by humans or those who wear human masks. It’s unfair, it’s cruel, and it feels like he should be doing more. Right now, he can do this.

Axel lifts his staff as chimera and werewolf do their best to tear chunks from one another. The flame ever-burning in his staff flares, goes pure white, and Axel slams the butt of his staff into the ground. The light of the moon lances between the trees, grows brighter until it seems as if they’re in a pure white desert. Everything fades until it’s only the three of them and the bright white nothing around them.

It’s a tricky spell and Axel will pay for it tomorrow, but it’s the best way to end this. By calling to the light around them and condensing it, he’s created a sphere that contains only the three of them. Nothing can reach them and none of them can get out until Axel ends the spell.

Breathing hard, Axel keeps both hands wrapped around his staff. The flame continues to flicker, still a bright white that flickers with grey. Isa and the chimera have separated, both of them looking around with nervous energy practically jumping from their skin. No one likes this trick and he’s sure the surprise will only last a second more.

Axel sucks in another breath and looks at the chimera. He whistles sharply and the creature looks at him, the snake head at the end of its tail hissing. “Sorry about this,” he mutters. “But I’m not going to kill you.” He waits until Isa backs up a step, rumbling a warning to the chimera, and then taps his staff to the ground again.

The light shoots forward all at once, striking all three heads, and the chimera collapses in a heap onto the ground. The actual ground now, grass and dirt and the moon’s gentle light as it falls through the tree branches - the spell is done and the chimera should be unconscious for several hours, plenty of time to get it set up to be collected by those who take care of the lost and mistreated supernatural creatures that need it.

He’s definitely calling them...in a minute. Axel kneels on the ground, supported mostly by his staff. He knows without looking up that the fire is a small red and orange flame again. He’s never had to entirely burn through his power, but that shit always takes more than he’d like. Axel exhales, eyes closed, and tells himself that he’s done.

There’s a whine and then a wet nose on his cheek. He lifts his head, but Isa is already settling around him, nosing at his face. Axel pulls a hand from his staff and catches his snout, rubbing the fur there. “I’m fine, Isa. It’s just a lot of energy all at once.”

That gets him a huffed breath directly in the eye, but it makes Axel laugh. “Yeah? Annoyed with me for taking all the glory? Get used to it, that’s what we wizards do.”

Isa’s revenge is a lick up the side of his face. That is less pleasant than the breath and Axel groans. “Gross, super gross.” He wipes his face off on his shirt and drags himself up to his feet again. “Okay, clean up and then we can go home. I have no idea how long this poor thing has been bothering you, but damn, at least we found it before anything _really bad_ happened.” A small miracle and Axel’s learned to accept those when he gets them.

“Alright, call first, because I’d kind of like to get home before sunrise. I don’t think you’d appreciate changing back out here when I’m supposed to be assisting you in not doing that.” Axel shakes his staff and with a flash it shrinks back down into his wand. He shoves it into the holder on his arm and then digs into his bag for his phone. 

A second whine from Isa stops him. Axel looks down, but Isa is on his paws again. He paces back and forth, giving the unconscious chimera only a cursory glance before looking into the woods. He looks back at Axel and then to the woods again. His meaning couldn’t be plainer than if he spoke.

Slowly, Axel holds a hand out. “Isa? Hey, come here.”

The werewolf huffs through his nose, looks to the woods, and then turns enough that Axel can reach him. Axel puts a hand on his back and rubs the soft fur. “Hey, what’s going on? We’re good, right?”

Isa’s tail swings low, not a wag, but anxious energy. He is not done, he wants to keep going. But Axel checked these woods, checked with his contacts and every bit of local news he could find. There can’t be anything out here, nothing as big as this chimera. Axel puts his other hand on Isa’s neck and turns the wolf’s head so he can see both eyes. “What is it? What are you looking for?”

Gold eyes meet his and there is an undefinable sadness there. Isa lifts his head and lets out a howl - not the mournful sort of thing they like to put in werewolf romances when the main characters have just separated, but what is clearly a call. It echoes through the forest and Isa’s ears are perked, listening for something.

There’s nothing, not even the rustle of the brush as prey runs for cover. It’s silent in the woods and Isa lowers his head again. His ears are low and Axel finally begins to put the pieces together. 

He kneels down again and wraps his arms around Isa’s very fluffy neck. “Hey,” he says quietly, “you’re not alone. I’m here, aren’t I? I might not be a wolf, but I can be here.” He lifts a hand and ruffles the fur between Isa’s ears. “Every month if you want me to be. That’s what friends do.”

Isa huffs through his nose and then gently nudges Axel’s face with his. It’s unlikely that he understands in full, werewolves are notoriously animal-minded under the moon, but that’s what the hug is for. He scratches under Isa’s chin and it gets him a small lick to the cheek. Axel smiles at him. “Yeah, see. You’re not by yourself, not anymore.”

Axel can’t say he’s read studies on werewolf pack needs or companionship, but if that’s what this is, well he’d be a pretty shit wizard if he couldn’t fix that. “Here,” he says to Isa, “sit and let me make this call. Then we can go home, both of us.” He sits on the grass, making sure he can see the chimera in case it somehow shrugs off that spell - unlikely, but an unnerving thought. He doesn’t have to pat the ground beside him, Isa settles, stretching out legs that are in need of cleaning with a sigh. Axel ruffles the fur at his neck again and extracts his phone.

It’s not the first time he’s contacted the supernatural creature line and it won’t be the last. It’s easy to explain the situation and they’ll have people on the scene in ten minutes to get the chimera to a safer and better place. Axel doesn’t even have to stick around. Magic’s fucking great for tracking and email is even better for submitting an official report of the night’s events.

Isa seems as glad as he is to turn toward home. Bright gold eyes watch him closely, carefully, but they only glance off into the words a couple times. The longer Axel stays beside him, waits for Isa when he slows a bit, the more convinced Isa seems that he isn’t going anywhere. 

“It’s funny,” he says when Isa’s house is in sight again. “I never would have expected something like this. The chimera? That was a surprise, but to have the answer be you want some damn company…” Axel looks at Isa and smiles tiredly. “It makes sense. You’re not a friendly guy all the time.”

The werewolf exhales through his snout and takes the lead, tail smacking into Axel’s side as he passes. Axel winces, but laughs. “It’s not a bad thing! I could be less friendly and way less busy!” He catches up in time to let Isa back inside.

Glancing back up at the moon, its color is still the warm orange of the harvest. Axel smiles up at it crookedly. “Thanks for your help.” He steps into Isa’s house, shutting the door behind him with a satisfying and relieving click.

“Alright, Isa, come here! I need to clean your wounds and you better not be a boy who hates water!”

* * *

Having your bones, muscles, and everything else pulled and stretched into a new shape twice in one night should be illegal. This is always Isa’s first thought the morning after a full moon and that doesn’t change this month either. He doesn’t move from where he’s lying as he grows more conscious, only groans and tries to press his face a bit harder into his pillow.

...pillow. He’s on his pillow. Isa can tell because it smells like his shampoo. He moves a hand, just enough to feel what he’s resting on. That’s a bed, he even has a blanket over him. He’s in bed in his house. Or he’s been kidnapped, pillow from his bed and all, but that seems less likely considering last night he could have easily torn a man’s arm off if pressed.

Isa cracks an eye open and the curtains are thankfully drawn. He’s in his bedroom, everything is neat and tidy with only his door ajar. Someone must have been checking on him - nobody tucks a wolf into bed. A shame his memories under the moon are all fragments of emotion and blurs of color. He works his hand up to his face and rubs at his forehead. Everything is sore and a bit confusing, but it won’t get better by lying here. With a groan, he levers himself upright and grabs the bottle of painkillers waiting on his bedside table.

What does he remember from last night? Isa forces himself to focus past the ache.

_The blur of trees, the ground under his paws, there’s something just ahead._

_Flashes of light, shouting and shrieking, his teeth snap together._

_A warm hand ruffles between his ears and they stay at his side._

Right, yes, Axel was here and must have followed him out into the woods. After that...it’s all a mess of things. He’ll have to call the wizard and find out what the issue was. It must be solved if he’s here at home again.

Isa slowly puts his feet on the floor and gets himself standing. Clothes are almost too much trouble, but he grabs the robe he always sets out and a soft pair of pants that he must have set out too - not that he remembers it. Quite frankly, any werewolf is lucky to remember their name in the twenty four hours around the moon.

Presentable, in case the curtains in the rest of the house are open, Isa makes his way slowly toward the kitchen. There’ll be a mess there, but the growling in his stomach is reaching a pitch he’d like to quiet. Toast, some fruit, he can make those this morning without his body wanting him to collapse.

He’s stepping into the living room before he processes that he is smelling actual food cooking. Isa straightens in alarm, but who breaks in to _cook?_ Apparently red haired wizards do. Axel is standing at the stove, humming as he messes with something sizzling in a pan. His hair is loose around his head, soft and almost glowing in the morning light coming through the windows. He’s dressed the same as he was last night, Isa remembers that from before turning, but has pulled an apron from somewhere.

At the snap of his fingers, the toaster pops. “Oh yeah, nailed it.” Axel plucks the toast out, adding it to a small stack waiting on one of the plates on the counter. The others that Isa can see are piled with eggs and bacon. His stomach growls, louder than the sizzling of the bacon Axel’s still cooking and he flushes. 

Isa coughs before his stomach reveals him, if it hasn’t already, and is very glad he put clothes on before leaving his room. “Did you sleep?”

Axel turns and his smile is brighter than the sun falling through the windows. “Isa! Sit down and I’ll get you a plate. I thought you’d be up soon.” He moves like he’s been to Isa’s house a dozen times, tugging out another plate and loading it with food. Isa doesn’t move to sit, stepping into the kitchen instead. Axel turns and almost smacks the plate into him. “Whoa, you okay?”

“You’re cooking me breakfast.” Simple facts always help to clarify a situation when he’s struggling to understand it in its entirety. “You came over last night, you helped with my issue, and now you are cooking me breakfast.”

Axel blinks. “Yes?”

Isa’s heart turns over and he takes the plate from Axel’s hands. He sets it back on the counter and Axel looks between him and it as if Isa’s being confusing. “I’ll eat,” Isa reassures him. “But first, what was the issue?”

“Oh!” Axel brightens again and waves a hand back and forth. “It actually wasn’t a big deal. I mean we tracked down and offended a jackalope and fought a traumatized chimera, but it wasn’t anything. Remind me to check your injuries before I leave. It didn’t seem like you needed bandages, but wolf versus human yada yada.”

There was a _what._ Isa stares at him, trying to process even as his joints are very much protesting the fact that he is still standing. He looks down at himself, but he can hardly see much of anything past the robe. He looks up again at Axel. “The chimera...was _not_ the issue?”

“Nah.” Axel turns to switch the stove off and then faces Isa again. “I thought it was, but even after we got it knocked out and I was calling for that supernaturals group to come pick the poor thing up, you were still bothered. And not in that post-fight adrenaline way. You wanted me to keep searching the woods with you, but come on, there can’t be _that_ much out in one night.”

A prickling under his skin that won’t cease, Isa has stared at the people around him and wanted to run far, far away. There are so many of them, how many are looking at him, _seeing_ him in a way he doesn’t want. Has it been the same as a wolf? Isa nods, eyes fixed on Axel’s face.

Axel stares back, smiling slightly, a touch awkward compared to before. One of his hands messes up the back of his hair. “I wouldn’t have figured it out, but then you called for someone.”

“I called?”

“Yeah, you know, like wolves do? You howled and were waiting for an answer, but...there aren’t any other wolves out in those woods.” Axel shrugs. “So, I guess you were just kinda...lonely.”

That is so pathetic and so absolutely foreseeable. How much time has he spent in this quiet house, seeing no one except the occasional trip to see those few he calls friends? Isa takes a breath and then pinches his nose. “Of course,” he says flatly. “But I don’t understand why _now._ I’ve never run with a pack.”

“I can’t give you a specific answer, but my guess is the fun of running through the woods or curling up inside by yourself has worn off. We all get lonely, Isa. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Axel takes his arm and tugs his hand away from his face. The sunlight catches on his cheeks, highlighting the freckles that spill across his nose. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting some company.”

Isa has completely exposed his most pathetic of behaviors and Axel acts like it’s normal. Isa shakes his head. “Perhaps not, but it’s not as if I have someone that should come over and, and babysit me every moon.”

“I can come over.” Axel says it frankly, with no fuss. He’s still holding Isa’s arm, but his other hand goes to his hair again. “I guess you don’t remember me saying that last night. It’s really not a big deal for me to come hangout for a bit. I can do whatever even with a giant wolf around.”

His mouth has gone dry. Isa opens it, shuts it, and then swallows as he finds the words he wants. “That is...much to ask and I doubt it constitutes regular business practice.”

Axel shrugs. “Yeah, well, call me stupid, because I’ll do it anyway.”

_Why?_ The question is on the tip of his tongue, but Isa isn’t so blind as to need to dig into Axel’s reasoning. Axel invited him to lunch. Axel stayed the night. Axel cooked him _breakfast._ They don’t have much, a few hours together really, but they’ve traded lingering looks since Isa walked through that deafening garden and into Axel’s shop.

Isa lifts his hands and cups Axel’s face between them. He brushes his thumb over the freckles that fade into his bright red hair and takes a breath. Axel doesn’t pull away, doesn’t say ‘stop,’ and so Isa kisses him. It’s a soft thing at first, both of them feeling out the way their lips fit together. Axel’s hand finds his neck, holding it carefully and twining a finger into Isa’s hair. They pull apart for a breath, two, and then Isa kisses him again. He’s a bit rougher this time and Axel almost steps back from the push, but he finds his balance and wraps his other arm around Isa’s back.

The kitchen is all warm morning light and the scents of a freshly cooked breakfast. Axel’s skin and his lips are soft under Isa’s touch and the way they press together is equally matched. He hasn’t felt so perfect in years and all he wants is to fall onto the couch and pass the rest of the morning this way. 

_I didn’t brush my teeth._ The thought is very sudden. Isa pulls back from the kiss, Axel trailing him for a second before he catches himself. Isa puts a hand over his mouth and can feel himself going red. He was running around as a wolf last night, ate meat that was only barely cooked, and he didn’t brush his teeth when he got up. “My breath must be _terrible._ ”

Axel blinks, his expression going from confused to delight. He laughs, letting his head tip back, and wraps both arms around Isa’s back. He brings his head forward, tapping their foreheads together. It’s impossible to see anything but green eyes and freckles - only Isa’s hand keeps their lips apart. “Isa, I’ll kiss you even if you have dog breath for the rest of your life.”

Isa eyebrows draw together slightly, but he lowers his hand to reveal how his lips twitch up. “It is not dog breath. It’s morning breath...with a side of wolf.”

“Dog breath. You know there’s mints for that.” Axel leans a bit closer, bumping their noses together. He doesn’t pull back even when Isa smacks his shoulder lightly. “I feel like we skipped a step or two.”

“We already had lunch and flirted. You stayed over and cooked me breakfast. I’d consider this exactly the time.” Isa tips his head enough to kiss the tip of Axel’s nose. “But I am going to brush my teeth before we continue.”

Axel huffs and tightens his grip. “You should eat first. I can’t believe you’re still upright.” He steals a quick kiss and then lets Isa go. “I hope you’re this happy to see me next month. Maybe I’ll keep some mints on me to sweeten the deal.”

Isa puts a hand to the counter, steadying himself. His legs are definitely protesting anymore standing. “Or expedite the process,” he says dryly. “Did you make coffee?”

“Nope. Coffee’s not good for you right after. I’ve got tea.” Axel puts a hand to his shoulder. “Sorry, ‘wizard nanny’ is my full title.”

“Hm, I see.” Isa leans into him. “Thank you, Axel, truly.” He finds Axel’s hand and intertwines their fingers. “I didn’t need all this.”

Axel’s smile is soft now and he squeezes Isa’s hand. “Maybe not, but it’s nice to have. Come on, let’s have breakfast.” He helps Isa toward the couch and Isa will be glad to be served breakfast there.

Plus, when he’s done, it’s a comfortable place to talk - even if the talking is nothing more than the clasp of their hands and the press of their shoulders.

* * *

It’s an hour later when Axel remembers to text Larxene and Vanitas again. He texted them both last night when they got back to the house, but his delay probably deserves a follow-up. Carefully he extracts his phone from his pocket. Isa, dead asleep on his shoulder, doesn’t twitch. He still has a loose hold on Axel’s hand and Axel will die before he wakes him.

Luckily, he can use a phone one-handed. He swipes into his messages and shoots them a text.

**Axel, Wizard in Chief: Shop’s staying closed today. Vanitas, put a sign up when you get a chance and I’ll take whatever emergency calls come in. Finishing up Isa’s case is gonna take till lunch.**

If he’s lucky they’ll still be asleep. 

Too bad the ‘...’ almost immediately appears. Here it comes.

**Vanitas😾: Fine, sign’ll be up soon. It’s gonna take you that long to ‘wrap up?’**

**B(itch)FF ⚡: Somebody wound that tight must take a while to work up.**

**Axel, Wizard in Chief: You’re both disgusting and I hate you. I’ll see you later tonight.**

His friends are the fucking worst, actually. Axel sighs, makes sure his phone is on silent so their continued mockery won’t make a racket, and then drops it on his bag. He looks down at Isa and softens.

It’s not a classically pretty sight - Isa’s mouth is slightly open and he’s probably drooling a bit, but Axel knows now that Isa’s hair is _very_ soft to the touch, that his lips are even softer, and that he’s definitely going to be here every month at minimum.

Axel kisses the top of Isa’s head and then presses his face there. Damn, he could go for a nap too. The magic drain from last night is finally catching up to him. He reaches and tugs a bit of the blanket over Isa’s legs over his as well. Settled as well as he can with one arm captive to a werewolf, Axel lets his eyes close. 

The last thing he thinks before he drifts off is that Larx is going to give him the most shit about being in _puppy love._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you again to the mods and my team for the AkuSai big bang! This was loads of fun and I never would have made it through without you guys!
> 
> Check out the GORGEOUS art pieces on their own and full size here:  
> ChloeAnnArt - [Chapter 1's illustration](https://chloeannart.tumblr.com/post/637970532947607552/i-took-part-in-the-moonfirebigbang-along-side)  
> LexiLopezi - [Chapter 2's illustration](https://writerdragon.tumblr.com/post/637962426503004160/my-piece-for-moonfirebigbang-got-to-art-for)
> 
> Also, because I know everybody cares as much as I do about the logic of Isa's wolf form being blue (despite this being a magic AU and not needing an explanation), Isa's hair is actually dyed blue. So his wolf form should be his natural color, except! The first time he shifted into a werewolf, he had dyed hair. So the magic of the werewolf shift basically locked him with blue hair for the rest of time lol! Hey, better than paying for dye for that much hair constantly am I right?
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


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